Imbalanced Information

Sparrow Electronics Ltd, HCL Infosystems and DB Power

Electronics (P) Ltd are three established players in the Indian IT Industry.

Here’s a review of their respective web sites:

www.sparrowit.com, www.hclinfosystems.com

and www.dbups.com.

www.sparrowit.com



Established about a decade ago, Sparrow Electronics Ltd is into

manufacturing electronic products like USB port cables, PCI to USB cards, USB

internal cables, four-port USB Hubs etc. Based in Bangalore, the company has a

manufacturing unit in Goa. They have recently ventured into distribution of

products like Thumb-Drives and MP3 players.

Sparrow Electronics’ online portal www.sparrowit.com

showcases a number of links including ‘Help’, ‘How Do I Order?’, ‘Account

Setup’, ‘Dealer’s List’, ‘Order Tracking’, ‘Product Details’,

‘Dealership Enquiry’, among others.

The ‘Help’ segment contains the site map and a list of

links that can be explored. ‘New User’ is a similar segment but with a brief

summary on each of the links. Thus, the information contained in both the

segments can be easily fitted in a single link. Among the various links in the

‘Help’ segment there are some like ‘Account Setup’, ‘Browsing

Merchandise’, ‘Order Verification’ and ‘Refund and Exchange’ which

cannot be accessed from the home page.

Of these, ‘Account Setup’ is a very helpful segment as it

guides the new user to become a registered member with the web site – an

important condition to buy products online. ‘Order Tracking’ a part of the

‘Help’ link, which tells you how to keep a track of products ordered through

the web site, is available on the home page too.

‘Refund and Exchange’ as the name suggests provides

information to dissatisfied customers on how they can exchange the goods or get

a refund.

Details about ordering products online are available in ‘How

Do I Order?’ section. Sections like ‘Browsing Merchandise,’ ‘Order

Verification’ and ‘How Do I Order?’ can be clubbed into a single segment

as all these give information on the procedure of purchasing products. Besides

the ‘Account Setup’ in the ‘Help’ section mentioned earlier, there’s

another ‘Account Setup’ section on the home page. But this section does not

provide the same information as the former section. Separate links are provided

for dealers and customers to login to the site. They should change the names of

one of the links as they both serve different purposes. Dealers interested in

having a business partnership with them can enquire through the form given in

the ‘Dealership Enquiry’ section. Information like model numbers and

standard prices can be procured from the ‘Product Details’ section.

The site gives a good amount of useful information. However,

what it lacks is the visual appeal.

www.hclinfosystems.com



HCL Infosystems, a well-known name in the Indian IT has an experience of

providing a wide range of products and services for over 25 years. They are in

partnership with established names such as HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Nokia,

Ericsson, SAP, Broadvision and Onyx.

HCL Infosystems’ web site www.hclinfosystems.com

basically has six segments namely ‘Our Profile’, ‘Solutions’, ‘Services’,

‘Industries’, ‘Investor Relations’ and ‘News & Events’. Other

sections on the web site are ‘HR & Career’, ‘Case Studies’ and ‘Other

Links.’

Though their profile mentions that HCL provides services at

three locations in India, the web site gives details of only one service center

near Delhi. Information on software solutions provided on the site can be read

in various links in the ‘Solutions’ segment.

Similar information about the gamut of services can be

obtained by exploring the ‘Services’ link. Details about products and

services provided by them to various industrial sectors can be found in the ‘Industries’

segment. Here they can give brief information on various projects successfully

completed for different industries instead of giving full details on few handful

projects given in ‘Case Studies’ on the home page.

Investors of the company can look for various financial

reports like annual reports, balance sheets, etc in ‘Investor Relations’

segment. One can also visit the various versions of the site meant for users in

Australia, USA, Malaysia, Europe and Singapore.

Though the site is well laid out, some of the sections need

to be made more concise rather than being extremely detailed as visitors tend to

spend very little time browsing each site.

www.dbups.com



DB Power Electronics (P) Ltd, a Pune-based firm, is into designing and
development, manufacturing, marketing and servicing of UPS systems and other

power electronic equipment. They have been appointed authorized dealers of

Chloride Power Protection, a UK-based company to distribute and provide after

sales service for their UPS systems in India. DB has a widespread network of 20

marketing and service offices across the country. For complete information on

the network of offices one may click ‘Services’ link on their web site www.dbups.com.

Other major links on the web site are ‘Products’, ‘Applications’,

‘Quality’, ‘UPS FAQ’, ‘UPS Selector’, ‘Contact Us’, ‘Comments’,

‘Downloads’, ‘Product Info’, and ‘UPS Software’.

Details on different types of UPS systems can be accessed

from ‘Products’ link. Same information can be accessed through ‘Product

Info’ link as well. Since both the links have same information and both can be

accessed from the home page, they can easily do away with one of them.

While product information like features, technical details

are given in these sections, the prices of products are missing. Brief

explanations are given on advantages of using UPS systems in industrial sectors.

‘Quality’ segment gives information on precautions taken by them to maintain

quality standards.

‘UPS FAQ’ section answers queries on UPS systems. The ‘Contact

Us’ segment has links to dealers and service centers while the same

information is also available in ‘Services’ link. Software for different UPS

systems can be downloaded through ‘UPS Software’ section. DB has special

newsletter for its employees, which can be accessed only by them from the ‘DB

Newsletter’ link. For vacancies one can look into ‘Jobs at DB’ section.

No information on warranty terms of the products is given.

The site can provide the facility of ordering products online. The site is not

cluttered and offers a smooth navigational flow.

–Jasmina Khanna is a

freelance writer